The Northern Diabetic Center of Excellence, a department of Northern Hospital, was recently named an accredited diabetes education program by the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE), a National Accredited Organization, certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This will allow people with diabetes in and around Surry County increased access to high quality diabetes education services.
Diabetes education is a collaborative process through which people with or at risk for diabetes gain the knowledge and skills needed to modify behavior and successfully self-manage the disease and its related conditions. The program is comprehensive and taught by diabetes educators who have extensive training.
“AADE’s accreditation assures that an accredited program meets the National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support. Programs who meet this criteria are considered high quality and have been shown to improve the health status of the individuals who embrace the education and help to modify sometimes unhealthy behaviors, or simply provide the education that the person with diabetes has not previously received,” said Leslie E. Kolb, RN, BSN, MBA, Accreditation Director for the Diabetes Education Accreditation Program. “The Northern Diabetic Center is exactly the type of program we envisioned when we set up our accreditation in 2009.”
Due to the debilitating risk and complications of uncontrolled diabetes, it is a primary goal of Northern’s Diabetic Center to supply each patient with the means, tools and empowerment to achieve a quality of life that comes only by lowering and maintaining their HbA1C. An A1C is a blood test that measures a person’s average blood sugar control for the past two to three months. It’s like a “memory” of your blood sugar levels.
The diabetic program at Northern Family Medicine began in 2014 with a core group of 30 patients. Since then the program has grown to over 300 patients who have completed the program with an average drop in their A1C levels of about 16 percent. Patients who began the program with an A1C of 10 or higher saw an average drop of 26 percent. A target AC1 level for an adult is 7 or less.
Paige Johnson Cartledge, RN and Program Coordinator had this to say about the recent certification, We are so excited to receive the AADE accreditation. With this accreditation, our community will now have access to the abundance of quality knowledge and resources available from the AADE that we teach in our program. In our rural community, a diabetic patient in need of these services would have to travel a long distance to access the education, training, and overall program guidance we can now provide, right here at home. We are thrilled to offer this program to better serve our community; it’s just phenomenal!
The Northern Diabetic Center of Excellence is located at 280 North Pointe Boulevard in Mount Airy, just off Highway 52. The Center is housed at Northern Wellness & Fitness Center and Northern Family Medicine. The Diabetic Center offers ongoing diabetes education classes at this location on a monthly basis. To find out more about the program, call 336-719-6030 or visit www.northernhospital.com/
